1:1. In the
beginning. An Egyptian creation text from Thebes speaks of the god Amun who
evolved in the beginning, or “on the first occasion.” Egyptologists interpret
this not as an abstract idea but as a reference to a first-time event. In the
same manner, the Hebrew word translated “beginning” usually refers not to a
point in time but to an initial period. This suggests that the beginning period
is the seven days of chapter one.

1:2.
formless and empty. In Egyptian views of origins there is the concept of the
“nonexistent” that may be very close to what is expressed here in Genesis. It
is viewed as that which has not yet been differentiated and assigned function.
No boundaries or definitions have been established. The Egyptian concept,
however, also carries with it the idea of potentiality and a quality of being
absolute.

1:2. Spirit
of God. Some interpreters have translated this as a supernatural or
mighty wind (the Hebrew word translated “Spirit” is sometimes translated “wind”
in other passages), which has a parallel in the Babylonian Enuma Elish.
There the sky god, Anu, creates the four winds that stir up the deep and its
goddess, Tiamat. There it is a disruptive wind bringing unrest. The same
phenomena can be seen in Daniel’s vision of the four beasts where “the four
winds of heaven were churning up the great sea” (7:2), a
situation that disturbs the beasts there. If this is correct, then the wind
would be part of the negative description of verse 2,
paralleled by the darkness.

1:1–5.
evening and morning. The account of creation does not intend to give a modern
scientific explanation of the origin of all natural phenomena, but rather to
address the more practical aspects of creation that surround our experiences of
living and surviving. In the course of this chapter the author relates how God
set up alternating periods of light and darkness—the basis for time. The
narrative speaks of evening first because the first time period of light is
just coming to a close. The author does not attempt an analysis of the physical
properties of light, nor is he concerned about its source or generation. Light
is the regulator of time.

1:3–5. light. The
people of the ancient world did not believe that all light came from the sun.
There was no knowledge that the moon simply reflected the light of the sun.
Moreover, there is no hint in the text that “daylight” was caused by sunlight.
The sun, moon and stars were all seen as bearers of light, but daylight was
present even when the sun was behind a cloud or eclipsed. It made its
appearance before the sun rose, and remained after the sun set.

1:6–8.
firmament. In a similar way the expanse (sometimes called “the firmament”)
set up in day two is the regulator of climate. The ancient Near Eastern
cultures viewed the cosmos as featuring a three-tiered structure consisting of
the heavens, the earth and the underworld. Climate originated from the heavens,
and the expanse was seen as the mechanism that regulated moisture and sunlight.
Though in the ancient world the expanse was generally viewed as more solid than
we would understand it today, it is not the physical composition that is
important but the function. In the Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish,
the goddess representing this cosmic ocean, Tiamat, is divided in half by
Marduk to make the waters above and the waters below.

1:9–19.
function of the cosmos. Just as God is the One who set time in
motion and set up the climate, he is likewise responsible for setting up all
the other aspects of human existence. The availability of water and the ability
of the land to grow vegetation; the laws of agriculture and the seasonal
cycles; each of God’s creatures, created with a role to play—all of this was
ordered by God and was good, not tyrannical or threatening. This reflects the
ancient understanding that the gods were responsible for setting up a system of
operations. The functioning of the cosmos was much more important to the people
of the ancient world than was its physical makeup or chemical composition. They
described what they saw and, more important, what they experienced of the world
as having been created by God. That it was all “good” reflects God’s wisdom and
justice. At the same time the text shows subtle ways of disagreeing with the
perspective of the ancient Near East. Most notable is the fact that it avoids
using names for the sun and moon, which to the neighbors of the Israelites were
also the names of the corresponding deities, and refers instead to the greater
light and the lesser light.

1:14. signs
and seasons. In a prologue to a Sumerian astrological treatise, the major
gods, An, Enlil and Enki, put the moon and stars in place to regulate days, months
and omens. In the famous Babylonian Hymn to Shamash, the sun god, reference is
also made to his role in regulating the seasons and the calendar in general. It
is intriguing that he is also the patron of divination. The Hebrew word used
for “sign” has a cognate in Akkadian that is used for omens. The Hebrew word,
however, has a more neutral sense, and again the author has emptied the
elements of the cosmos of their more personal traits.

1:20. great
creatures of the sea. In the Babylonian Hymn to Shamash, the sun god is said to receive
praise and reverence even from the worst groups. Included in the list are the
fearsome monsters of the sea. The hymn thus suggests that there is a total
submission of all creatures to Shamash, just as the Genesis creation texts
shows all creatures created by, and therefore submitted to, Yahweh. The Labbu
Myth records the creation of the sea viper, whose length was sixty leagues.

1:20–25.
zoological categories. The zoological categories include various
species of (1) sea creatures, (2) birds, (3) land-based creatures, which are
divided into domestic and wild animals and “creatures that move along the
ground” (perhaps the reptiles and/or amphibians), and (4) humans. Insects and
the microscopic world of creatures are not mentioned, but the categories are
broad enough to include them.﻿

1:26–31.
function of people. While the organizational or functional focus of the account may
have similarities with the ancient Near Eastern perspective, the reason for it
all is quite different. In the ancient Near East, the gods created for
themselves—the world was their environment for their enjoyment and existence.
People were created only as an afterthought, when the gods needed slave labor
to help provide the conveniences of life (such as irrigation trenches). In the
Bible the cosmos was created and organized to function on behalf of the people
that God planned as the centerpiece of his creation.

1:26–31.
creation of people in ancient Near Eastern myths. In
creation accounts from Mesopotamia an entire population of people is created,
already civilized, using a mixture of clay and the blood of a slain rebel god.
This creation comes about as the result of conflict among the gods, and the god
organizing the cosmos had to overcome the forces of chaos to bring order to his
created world. The Genesis account portrays God’s creation not as part of a
conflict with opposing forces but as a serene and controlled process.

1:26–27. image
of God. When God created people, he put them in charge of all of his creation.
He endowed them with his own image. In the ancient world an image was believed
to carry the essence of that which it represented. An idol image of deity, the
same terminology as used here, would be used in the worship of that deity
because it contained the deity’s essence. This would not suggest that the image
could do what the deity could do, nor that it looked the same as the deity.
Rather, the deity’s work was thought to be accomplished through the idol. In
similar ways the governing work of God was seen to be accomplished by people.
But that is not all there is to the image of God. Genesis
5:1–3 likens the image of God in Adam to the image of Adam in Seth.
This goes beyond the comment about plants and animals reproducing after their
own kind, though certainly children share physical characteristics and basic
nature (genetically) with their parents. What draws the idol imagery and the
child imagery together is the concept that the image provides the capacity not
only to serve in the place of God (his representative containing his essence)
but also to be and act like him. The tools he provided so that we may
accomplish that task include conscience, self-awareness and spiritual
discernment. Mesopotamian traditions speak of sons being in the image of their
fathers (Enuma Elish) but do not speak of humans created in the image of
God; but the Egyptian Instructions of Merikare identifies humankind as
the god’s images who came from his body. In Mesopotamia a significance of the
image can be seen in the practice of kings setting up images of themselves in
places where they want to establish their authority. Other than that, it is
only other gods who are made in the image of gods. (See comment on 5:3.)

2:1–3.
seventh-day rest. In the Egyptian creation account from Memphis, the creator god
Ptah rests after the completion of his work. Likewise the creation of humans is
followed by rest for the Mesopotamian gods. In Mesopotamia, however, the rest
is a result of the fact that people have been created to do the work that the
gods were tired of doing. Nonetheless, the desire for rest is one of the
motivating elements driving these creation narratives. The containment or
destruction of chaotic cosmic forces that is often a central part of ancient
creation narratives leads to rest, peace or repose for the gods. Likewise it is
the gods’ inability to find rest from the noise and disturbance of humankind
that leads to the flood. In all it is clear that ancient ideologies considered
rest to be one of the principal objectives of the gods. In Israelite theology,
God does not require rest from either cosmic or human disturbances but
seeks rest in a dwelling place (see especially Ps
132:7–8, 13–14).

2:1.
sabbath divisions. Dividing time into seven-day periods was a practice that is so
far unattested in the other cultures of the ancient Near East, though there
were particular days of the month in Mesopotamia that were considered unlucky,
and they were often seven days apart (that is, the seventh day of the month,
the fourteenth day of the month, etc.). Israel’s sabbath was not celebrated on
certain days of the month and was not linked to the cycles of the moon or to
any other cycle of nature; it was simply observed every seventh day.